Table Hopping column: Restaurants facing labor crisis

From left, Svitlana Zahorulko, Olga Wyczulkowska, Gabriela Pazdur and Angelika Wloch in front Chianti restaurant in Saratoga Springs. The women are among seven employees, all from Poland, that Chianti’s parent company, DZ Restaurants, brought over for the summer to address a labor shortage. (Photo by DZ Restaurants.)

Today’s Table Hopping column takes a look at the severe labor shortage faced by Capital Region restaurateurs, reflecting an issue that’s been a nationwide concern in the industry for several years. Short version:

The labor market for restaurant employees is so grim that Saratoga Springs-based DZ Restaurants had to import seven college-age workers from Poland.

“I’ve never seen it this bad,” says Nancy Bambera, DZ’s vice president and chief operating officer, who has been with the company for 18 of its 20 years.

Mexican Radio in Schenectady has had standing help-wanted ads for six years.

Yono’s/dp in Albany hasn’t had a fully staffed kitchen in three years.

Hattie’s Chicken Shack in Wilton has gone through a dozen dishwashers and entry-level cooks in a year.

Factors commonly cited for the labor crisis in restaurants include market saturation; more than 15,000 new restaurants opened nationally between the third quarters of 2016 and 2017, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a Times Union tally counted more than 180 new restaurants, not including chains, in the Capital Region between 2016 and last year. Another factor is an improving economy and overall employment picture. National labor reports suggest people who found restaurant work after being downsized out of their original careers following the financial crisis of 2008 have been returning to those fields as jobs opened up.